I admit this is cheating - because these weren't really taken with the new Leica Monochrom. But they are taken with an M8 (upgraded to M8.2) - with all of its high-IR sensitivity in the highly sunny Frankfurt: a city that many claim isn't pretty at all. Paired with the Summilux 50 ASPH, the field of view was quite different from what I've been enjoying for my street photography the most - 35 mm full-frame (but since I damanged by 35 mm lens, I haven't found a replacement yet). The cropped field enabled a bit more distance but sometimes lacked the contextualization (and in Frankfurt that is something to keep). But it also enabled me to look for contrasting shapes and graphical elements - hence the black-and-white series (I even had the time to visit the Leica Gallery in Frankfurt).
I liked Frankfurt (the part of it that I saw). Maybe I saw it only through the limited perspective of the dissonance from my missed connecting flight (hence anything that was remotely positive or even just "mah" was perceived extremely positively). Maybe I saw it only on a beautiful funny day when people were out (the tall glass-and-steel buildings must be intimidating in the gloomy days of Fall or Winter). Maybe I saw it only through the eyes of the envious guy with a camera stranded alone in a strangers' place (when things always get to be more interesting if one just smiles more to random people - like smiling at the guy with the Leica - don't you find that Leica photographers all belong to a club of their own?). Maybe it was the entertainment of observing an old pervert try to have a conversation with two high-schoolers at Starbucks (and I wish I had interfered politely like that other guy who had the guts to tell the old man that the young ladies preferred to be alone). Maybe it was the couples that were seen holding hands everywhere. Maybe it was the fashion that everyone was showing (and hence my pink chinos didn't seem so out of place in the fashionable area of the city). Maybe it was the graphical quality of the city with its contrasts between light and shadow, glass-and-steel and European architecture, cosmopolitanism and greenery around.
